A vehicle roll shade device is known which includes a shade for opening and closing an inner opening of a roof, a roll shaft for winding up the shade in a roll shape, bearing members for pivotally supporting the roll shaft, and elastic members interposed between the roll shaft and the bearing members (for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-180280). The elastic members are arranged to apply tension to an expanded shade for preventing the shade from sagging.
Such a kind of roll shade device often has a structure in which an elastic restoring force is applied to the elastic members at the time of assembling operation for the roll shade device. For example, a worker rotates the roll shaft about the bearing members in a shade feeding direction, which is so-called a pre-winding, to give an elastic restoring force to the elastic members so that the roll shaft rotates in a shade rewinding direction. Then, the roll shade device is assembled while the pre-winding state is kept. Accordingly, after assembling, the shade is always applied with tension so as to be rewound on the roll shaft.
Note that, in general, sliding shoes are installed on both sides at a front end of the shade. The sliding shoes are guided in guide rails. In a case where the shade is operated manually, for example, a frictional force acting between the sliding shoes and the guide rails is set to be larger than the elastic restoring force of the elastic members, to allow the shade to be kept at any opening/closing position. On the other hand, in a case where the shade is operated automatically, for example, as described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-180280, the sliding shoes are connected to a driving cable, to allow the shade to be kept at any opening/closing position.